September 24, 2012

... to that BuzzFeed reporter, Michael Hastings. There's so much more of immensely great importance in their email exchange about what that spokesman — Phillippe Reines — had been trying to get us to think about CNN's use of the Chris Stevens journal, found at the site of the murder in Benghazi, after our diplomatic personnel fled the scene.

Hastings emailed an excellent set of questions:

Why didn't the State Department search the consulate and find AMB Steven's diary first? What other potential valuable intelligence was left behind that could have been picked up by apparently anyone searching the grounds? Was any classified or top secret material also left? Do you still feel that there was adequate security at the compound, considering it was not only overrun but sensitive personal effects and possibly other intelligence remained out for anyone passing through to pick up? Your statement on CNN sounded pretty defensive--do you think it's the media's responsibility to help secure State Department assets overseas after they've been attacked?

And Reines couldn't or wouldn't answer these questions. He continued those pretty defensive efforts to shift the focus to CNN. When Hastings pressed him, Reines resorted to "Fuck Off" and "Have a good life." Those nasty comebacks shouldn't be the story. They should direct us to the set of questions. Those are great questions, and the State Department will not answer them. Without answers, they feel like questions that answer themselves.

Phillipe will be in the WH Chief of Staff or Special Asst. to the POTUS in the 2nd term. We need a person like him to tell the reporters: F.O. If you as a reporter will not supper thte POTUS, we will treat you like a dirt bag.

Look there are many reporters, you can see we leak to NYT, NPR, PBS, HuffPost, WashPost, DailyBeast, etc. If you love us, you will be given leaks and dinner invites. If you even try to make us look bad, F.O. to you and to your family. F.O.

The old soldier in me wonders if the embassy personnel even had some sort of rehearsed contingency plan in such an event. Apparently not--and I also suspect embassy personnel are not in the least trained to police up a "crime" scene and secure classified documents and other evidence. But perhaps I am too suspicious in my old age.

Hastings called this eve. and apologized. We in the campaign have accepted this apology. We will give him a leak and maybe invite to the POTUS event. All will be well.

Reporters want access and leaks in our 2nd term, we will give them. If you make a mistake, just apologize to us. Else, we will F.O. you and your family. You know we have to be ruthless, politics is a blood-sport.

Hillary seemed able to find whatever she needed to find in Vince Foster's office. Some of it even saw the light of day a few days later crumpled up on the bottom of Vince's briefcase. She should have cleaned up the ambassador's office herself.

Actually the full quote is "Katie Graham's going to get her tit caught in a big, fat wringer if that's published." From the AG, ladies and gentlemen! Although of course John MItchell didn't actually kill any people, as far as I know.

It would be really, really, really nice if the press starts smelling blood.

-----The "Fuck off" is not just to the reporter. It is to the American people.

I hear this FO to me and my fellow citizens. Its pretty enraging. What I'd like to know is how any media person (who is charged with protecting me via the first amendment) would not make this a headline in every major paper in the country?

When I put this next along with Segway boy singing songs about a respected dead journalist (sorry to go local here) I want to puke about the storied, courageous press.

Why didn't the State Department search the consulate and find AMB Steven's diary first? What other potential valuable intelligence was left behind that could have been picked up by apparently anyone searching the grounds? Was any classified or top secret material also left? Do you still feel that there was adequate security at the compound, considering it was not only overrun but sensitive personal effects and possibly other intelligence remained out for anyone passing through to pick up? Your statement on CNN sounded pretty defensive--do you think it's the media's responsibility to help secure State Department assets overseas after they've been attacked?Those are good questions. Real questions. Rare.

Answer: There will be no intellectual curiosity in the age of Obama/Hillary celebrity.Fall in line like the rest of the hack media.

You AIN'T qualified to ask questions. Man, who are you? What do you think of your-self? We are the best and the greatest. We know what is best for the nation. We do not need you/Romney/GOP. This is our country - not yours! If you want to contribute, then join us. If you want to support, welcome then. BUT, DOn't play games. Or, we will F.O. you and your family.

I'm sorry, if I was in the State Dept. I'd fire that stupid fucking hothead Reines right now.

Rule #1 of politics is that you do not piss off people who are in a position to hurt you unless you absolutely have to!

Right now, if CNN gets its dander up and feels it's either its credibility or the State Dept.'s it will push its investigation on the Benghazi massacre until finally other media outlets will be forced to pick it up.

The Benghazi massacre was a major, major fuck-up that only now is starting to permeate the brains of the non-news junkies. If the MSM doesn't keep burying this story, it'll make Obama look like foreign policy lightweight who'll have to play defense at the debates.

Reines reacts like a person in an untenable position. He has been put in this position by his superior, Hillary Clinton, and she is the true object of his anger. He can't direct his anger where it belongs, so he vents it all at the first convenient target. On the plus side, Hastings got his answers-- maybe not to the questions he asked-- but Reines sure as hell gave him, and us, a window into the state of State.

Maybe Reines is irritated that Obama always has it easy. I think Hillary is being very subtly shoved under the bus here by Obama. He and his minions can't overtly do anything to damage her reputation like he does with everyone else, because he needs all the Hillary dems to vote for him and more because (wait for it!), she is more likeable than he is and going against her would only cost him votes among her loyalists.

They are questions that answer themselves. They were already answered when I encountered this item, and then I thought of you, naturally, "hey, this is the type of thing she picks up," it has just that scent of rottenness to it. My Belgians did that, went straight to the most interesting rotten thing, with complex scents, to check it out and that thought led to the photo of Obama's 10,000 yard stare and twice those french fries I suppose he's having seemed soooo good, that I put down what I was doing and made some on the spot, and it's incredibly satisfying knowing delicious hot greasy French fries are available on demand directly out of the freezer straight into hot oil, bang! French fries just like that.

And then sat there eating those fries, twice, thinking, yes, the answers to these disturbing questions are all dismal.

This stream of consciousness is brought to you by Ore-Ida, maker of delicious fries, crunchy tots, and other fluffy potato products.

I have no idea. I mean, we ARE talking about a guy who couldn't even finesse, "Mr. Romney, what do you think of the Olympics?"

Charles Krauthammer:

“All Romney has to do, say nothing. It’s like a guy in the 100-meter dash. All he has to do is to finish, he doen’t have to win. And instead, he tackles the guy in the lane next to him and ends up disqualified. I don’t get it.”

I think I recognize Obama. he's that faculty lounge blowhard who is never going to get tenure, and opportunistically takes up any position to get him into the "in" crowd of solid leftists who do have tenure, so that, in his mind, he has a shot. The tenured leftists don't really like him but he's of the correct useful idiot class that they keep as pets. He's not a good speaker no matter how many times I am assured that he is; he's not particularly smart; and he's the openly vainest president I can remember.

I could not care less what bigoted "The Crack Emcee" thinks. The more he displays his depravity, the more I find his tedious obsession repulsive and train-wreck-like.

I do no share this because I think TCE will re-examine his bigotry and hatred but rather to mock his impotence and uselessness. He is officially a buffoon. He's a clownish, macabre warning to resist insanity no matter the cause.

DowntownLad, Cedarford and The Crack Emcee now share the same space. So hateful that he create their own inescapeable gravity. Black holes of putrescence, the lot.

I wonder how Bill Clinton feels now about his Obama ass kissing convention speech. Poor Bill is all in for Obama and Barry just wiped the dog shit of a Middle-East foreign policy off his hands on to Hillary face. One wonders if the stench will wear off by 2016.

As I understand it, an Embassy is treated literally as a part of the country it represents. I'm not sure about consulates, but I'd have to assume that the country it represents at least owns the property.

The idea that the State Department left it open for pilfering is simply surreal. If this were a work of fiction, anyone reading would toss the book as being too stupid to read.

I am beginning to wonder if Ambassador Stephens was or had been a CIA agent who had helped funnel arms to the insurgents and was whacked by the deposed ruling set? We had an ultra small footprint there, but the guy had no security? Something doesn't add up. Maybe the administrations tight lippedness has something to do with what he had been doing. (Do not read this as he had it coming. I see him as a hero that was hung out to dry)

I think that "tough questions" is the wrong way for "journalists" to go about it. Revealing questions, how about that?

How do you feel about having a chance to be the first Mormon president isn't a tough question, but it's not a revealing question either. It's an obscuring question and it's not doing Romney a favor by being "nice."

Ask about Bain. People want to know about that. It's not *easy* questions. But it's probably not going to end up making Romney look bad either. Ask about Romney Care in Mass... only maybe that wouldn't make him look bad to swing voters either.

Ask about Romney Care in Mass... only maybe that wouldn't make him look bad to swing voters either.

Or worse, it would damage the image of the loony-toon weird-pajama-wearing hyper-conservative plutocrat that is being peddled. It would make him seem like a *gasp* RINO that a reasonable liberal could vote for.

Everyone knows this year is about turnout. There are only so many dead Democrats that can march to the polls. So anyone squishy has to be scared silly of the Massachusetts Mormon. That's the play.

4 more years of Ob ama and we will see Obama tax hikes, deeper recession, higher un-employment, and dwindling money to the treasury (Obama doesn't care about tax fairness/only punitive tax damage)..more tax payer dollars up in smoke, and no shovel ready jobs to show for it. No bridges and dams and schools. Just more graft and power grabbing all layered with leftwing media lies. More of your hard earned money will end up in the hands of Obama’s wealthy donors and bundlers. To top it off we will have to endure an insufferable fawning unprofessional joke media. Ignoring Rome while it burns. With 4 more years - Homelessness will continue to increase, wages will decrease, taxes will increase and money to the US treasury will decrease. More middle class will slip into lower classes and foodstamps. That’s the plan.

Why? Bain hasn't been fully picked over, in my opinion, but most people's eyes would glaze.

Ask him about Jesus coming back to Missouri - that'll make him squirm - and it's fair game after he said Obama would make America a less Christian nation.

Since his "religion" is based on prophets having revelations from God (which they do with surprising frequency) ask him why he told a reporter God has spoken to anyone in about 2,000 years - wouldn't that mean Mormon prophets are liars?

Ask him why his wife, who sits on a board for MS, uses quack treatments, and why he sells supplements that have repeatedly been found useless to the average person's health?

There's so much low-hanging fruit out there, I'd be hitting him from so many angles - that he couldn't answer coherently - any paper I worked for would look like The Washington Post hunting Nixon.

THAT'S what journalism, and an election, is supposed to be about.

Nixon to Dan Rather after Rather got applause from his fellow journalists: